Thanks to all of you for the support. A family member of his is paying what he stole so that the charges will be dropped. At this point, I want my money. I NEED my money. So I'm taking it - it's a 2 month process to dispute with the credit card. I am hoping I got the point across by calling the police. If not, next time I will not be so kind.... I hope I'm making the right decision, in some ways I'd like to charge him to make a point. But also hoping I already made one by filing the report in the first place - I've threatened to before, but never actually did.
I suppose we'll see...